Waxahachie, American Girl, and Our Frozen Sewage

Waxahachie (wax-uh-hatch-ee), located south of Dallas a couple hours, was our next stop. Since we joined the Mission America Placement System, or MAPS, lots of other volunteers have told us that we just had to visit the Lake View Assembly of God retreat center in Waxahachie! And at last, we found out why they recommended it so highly. The center covers hundreds of acres and has a hotel, indoor pool, gym, exercise center, cafeteria, RV park, game room, playground, water park, cabins, and it’s own private lake. Unfortunately, while we were there it snowed, so obviously we weren’t able to use the lake or water park.


I was pleasantly surprised to see some good friends of ours that we met last Winter while building a church in Phoenix, AZ - Boyd and Diane. I spent five months hanging drywall with Mr. Boyd, so him and I talked a lot about where we’d both been in the year since I’d left the project at Phoenix.

The first couple days that we were there the weather was perfect – in the 70s and sunny, so we took the opportunity to walk around the camp and have a picnic by the lake. The kids really enjoyed playing on the playground a lot, also. Now this isn’t your typical city park playground – this monster looks like they pulled it right out of Chuck E. Cheese or something! (ha ha) Dad attempted climbing through the tunnels with the kids, but with his hurt knee (see Adventures at the Lee’s Ranch) he had a hard time squeezing his way through to keep up with Josephine.



Josephine and Tytus had fun watching us
play racquetball! Dad, being... well Dad,
kept throwing the ball against the window
to make them jump - but they kept watching
anyways.

 Well, after the first couple days were over it went right back to some nasty Winter weather. As in, 30 mph winds, six inches of snow, and thick ice that caused the interstates around Dallas and Fort Worth to close down. We were pretty much snowed in! The good part of it was that we were snowed in at a place with a huge indoor gym, exercise center, and swimming pools. We had a blast, and went over there almost every day! I learned how to play racquetball (a sport I never even knew existed before), and figured out how to use some of the strange, torturous, weight-lifting equipment that littered the second floor.

Through snow and rain, sunshine and darkness, freezing cold and blistering heat – the sewage will be dumped! That’s like the motto for dumping our black tank around here, because that’s what I have to do. And I have actually dumped it in all those conditions, because… well, somebody has to do it! This time was no different. The sewage tank and valves were frozen (our “heated tank” system didn’t get “heated” enough), but with a good ol’ hair dryer and some persistence, I finally got it to drain. Funny thing is, for some reason I didn’t dress real warm to do it even though the 30+ mph winds were making the wind chill near 0 degrees! I had shorts and a t-shirt on, because we’d been over at the gym, so I just slipped a big Winter suit on over it all. Unfortunately, the neck and legs on it didn’t seal at all, so when I laid down under the camper I could actually feel the wind blowing up my pant legs, though the suit, and out my sleeves or neck. Every once in a while, just so I wouldn’t completely freeze to death, I would blow the hair dryer down my suit to make it warm for a minute or two. (ha ha) I hope I never have to do something like that again, but if I have to I will, because “through snow and rain, sunshine and darkness, freezing cold and blistering heat – the sewage will be dumped”…



Here's me posing with my favorite American Girl.
(just kidding!)

 On Super Bowl weekend we went to Dallas! Now, if you’re not going to see the game, wouldn’t that be the last place you’d want to be that weekend? Yeah, we were on our way to the American Girl store right downtown, and figured the traffic would be horrible and the stores packed. I have to admit, I was totally wrong. The interstate going into the city only had some straggling cars here and there, and the store was almost empty. Of course, it made sense! Everyone was either at the game or at home watching it. So don’t listen to any lies about not going to Dallas during the Super Bowl because it’ll be packed and busy – what a load of malarkey. Anyways, Naomi and Josephine had a lot of fun at the store and we all had fun walking around with them. They each picked out a new doll, and Naomi had been saving her money for months to go there so she ended up having about $140 of extra money to spend! Of course, at the AG store that amount of money will go fast. I personally think even Hanna had almost as much fun as Naomi and Josephine! She had always wanted to go to one of the American Girl stores (which are actually more like a mall) when she was their age, but the closest one was a long ways away. After a few hours they had combed the store from one end to the other and it was time to head back and open it all!



This is part of the big water park at the retreat center that
I want to go back to when it warms up some!

 The weekend we left, MAPS had a convention, and a lot more volunteers showed up a couple days before it started to attend. It was great getting to see Mr. Jerry Bell, the director, and several others who we hadn’t seen in over a year. We all played games, had an awesome church service, and got to hear The Harvesters (a quartet). It really was a good way to end our time in Waxahachie, because the next morning we headed back out on the open road.

Check back soon – new adventures await in San Angelo!